David Hughes

David Hughes

David Hughes understands the devastating effects a plant disease can have on crops and the people who rely on them for food and income. This understanding, and the mentoring he received early in his research career, germinated the seed of an idea that has borne fruit in the form of an online network designed to get practical knowledge about plants and plant diseases into the hands -- and mobile devices -- of farmers around the globe.

A parasitic fungus that reproduces by manipulating the behavior of ants emits a cocktail of behavior-controlling chemicals when encountering the brain of its natural target host but not when infecting other ant species, a new study shows. The findings, which suggest that the fungus "knows" its preferred host, provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, according to researchers.

A parasitic fungus that must kill its ant hosts outside their nest to reproduce and transmit its infection, manipulates its victims to die in the vicinity of the colony, ensuring a constant supply of potential new hosts, according to researchers at Penn State and colleagues at Brazil's Federal University of Vicosa.

Penn State students, coaches and faculty researchers making a difference in the world are featured in the next episode of "BTN LiveBIG," which debuts at 11 p.m. Eastern time tonight (Jan. 13) on the Big Ten Network (BTN). "BTN LiveBIG" caps an evening of Penn State programming on the network, starting with the Nittany Lion men's ice hockey facing off against No. 1-ranked Minnesota at 7 p.m.

For David Hughes, an associate of Penn State's Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, the zombie ant phenomenon has implications far beyond the annals of weird science. It's a powerful reminder of the role of behavior in the transmission of disease.

David Hughes' work on the zombie ant phenomenon has attracted worldwide attention, a fact the Penn State biologist takes in stride. "I'm just benefiting from a great interest in parasites and zombies and that sort of stuff in popular culture," he says with a shrug.

Rainforest ecologist David Hughes has a special interest in parasites, especially those that accomplish their ends by mind control: invading the brain of a hapless host -- ants, in this case -- and causing that creature to do its bidding. Scientists like Hughes say 'zombie ants' offer new insights into the role behavior plays in spreading disease.

A parasite that fights the zombie-ant fungus has yielded some of its secrets to an international research team led by Penn State's David Hughes. The research reveals, for the first time, how an entire ant colony is able to survive infestations by the zombie-ant fungus, which invades an ant's brain and causes it to march to its death at a mass grave near the ant colony, where the fungus spores erupt out of the ant's head. "In a case where biology is stranger than fiction, the parasite of the zombie-ant fungus is itself a fungus -- a hyperparasitic fungus that specializes in attacking the parasite that turns the ants into zombies," Hughes said.

A free public lecture titled "Novel Solutions to Complex Diseases for Subsistence Agriculture" will take place at 11 a.m. on Feb. 11 in Room 100 of the Thomas Building on Penn State's University Park campus. The speaker will be David Hughes, who is an assistant professor of entomology and biology at Penn State.

New research has revealed how infection by a parasitic fungus dramatically changes the behavior of tropical carpenter ants (species Camponotus leonardi), causing them to become zombie-like and to die at a spot that has optimal reproduction conditions for the fungus. The multinational research team studied ants living high up in the rainforest canopy in Thailand. A paper describing the research was published in the BioMed Central open-access journal BMC Ecology on May 9. To see photos related to this research, visit http://live.psu.edu/flickrset/72157626690115010 online.